Where do I go to now ?

Churchyards and Monumental Inscriptions, Burial and headstone information

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trish58
Posts: 265
Joined: Wed Mar 22, 2006 6:41 am
Location: Australia

Where do I go to now ?

Post by trish58 » Tue Aug 19, 2014 1:17 am

I can't find the burial records for my 3 x Gr Grand Father, can anyone shed any light on why he can't be found.

Richard Rae/Raw died 16 Sept 1881, 31 Main Street Alexandria Dunbarton age 60. His 2nd wife Margaret m/s Johnston went on to live 30 longer and died in 1919 at 67 Main Street.

I have recently returned from the UK and went to visit the grave of Margaret, their Daughter Mary Jane Barr m/s Rae, & their Granddaughter Margaret Johnston Barr age 7.

I have to say the cemetery is a credit to the 4 men who care for it, it was immaculate well done guys. Also a huge thanks to the Bereavement Services who found the burial place for Margaret, they also met me at the cemetery and took me to the grave it was all very touching, & at last I was able to place flowers on their grave, sadly there was no headstone which I didn't expect, but I did order a small one so that my folks will now always will have their own spot on this planet.

My problem is there is no record of a burial for Richard, he died one month after the opening of the new section, I have seen the page of burials going through to December of 1881. So where is he ??

I have been in touch with the National Archives of Scotland and the Glasgow City Archives, all to no avail
Can anyone help me further with this.

Many thanks
Trish
Last edited by trish58 on Wed Aug 20, 2014 8:59 am, edited 1 time in total.
searching. Rae, Kennedy, Agnew, McConnell, Singleton, Appleton, Feeney, Fury, & many more

WilmaM
Posts: 1870
Joined: Fri Dec 17, 2004 10:46 am
Location: Falkirk area

Re: Where go I go to now ?

Post by WilmaM » Tue Aug 19, 2014 2:04 pm

I'm glad you've found the cemetery so nice, some are still in a dreadful state.

Have you considered that he maybe buried with his 1st wife? or with his parents or grandparents in a family lair elsewhere.
Details of his funeral may have been published in a newspaper at the time too.
Wilma

trish58
Posts: 265
Joined: Wed Mar 22, 2006 6:41 am
Location: Australia

Re: Where do I go to now ?

Post by trish58 » Tue Aug 19, 2014 11:53 pm

Hi Wilma
Thanks for the options but sadly I don't think these are possible.

His parents died in Ireland.
His first wife Anne Fury died in 1859 in Killbirnie as did most of his 9 children with her.

Richard had 18 children, 9 with each wife, only 3 of the 18 survived to adulthood, 1908.1921.1948 (1948 is the Daughter buried with his 2nd wife)
Most of their time was spent in Ayr & Glasgow until around 1877, Richard loses 2 Sons in 1877 in Glasgow, then appear to move to Bonhill Alexandria between 1877-1881 where he dies.
He is on the 1881 census in Bonhill with wife Margaret and 4 surviving children, 2 more of these children die. As you can imagine it was quite depressing doing this family tree.

Finally Wilma I doubt if they could have afforded a funeral announcement.

Thanks
Trish
Last edited by trish58 on Wed Aug 20, 2014 9:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
searching. Rae, Kennedy, Agnew, McConnell, Singleton, Appleton, Feeney, Fury, & many more

WilmaM
Posts: 1870
Joined: Fri Dec 17, 2004 10:46 am
Location: Falkirk area

Re: Where go I go to now ?

Post by WilmaM » Wed Aug 20, 2014 8:45 am

It's amazing what folks managed to afford at funerals, they always wanted to 'to the right thing' and hearse-loads of flowers, proper announcements and funeral purveys were all part and parcel. In the rural parts of Ireland it's still the thing to have the funeral arrangements broadcast on the radio!

It was also fairly common to travel a distance to the burial if there was space in an existing family lair, so I wouldn't dismiss looking at wherever the 2 sons are.

It would be worth a try finding the local paper and see if there are any archives for it - some knowledgeable TS member know doubt will know.
Wilma

trish58
Posts: 265
Joined: Wed Mar 22, 2006 6:41 am
Location: Australia

Re: Where do I go to now ?

Post by trish58 » Wed Aug 20, 2014 9:03 am

Thanks Wilma, I will keep looking. ](*,)

Trish
searching. Rae, Kennedy, Agnew, McConnell, Singleton, Appleton, Feeney, Fury, & many more

Currie
Posts: 3924
Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2007 3:20 am
Location: Australia

Re: Where do I go to now ?

Post by Currie » Thu Aug 21, 2014 5:15 pm

Hello Trish & Wilma,

I worked for a few weeks in a large town in rural NSW back in the 1970s and they broadcast the death and funeral notices every morning. Apart from that it was a pretty dull sort of a place.

It seems that Dumbarton Library has an index of Dumbarton Herald births, marriages and deaths (1851-1949). The Dumbarton Herald has been microfilmed and maybe they have a copy of the film and could check for you.
http://www.nls.uk/collections/newspaper ... .cfm?id=81

Library site.
http://www.west-dunbarton.gov.uk/librar ... n-library/

There doesn't appear to be any other newspaper on the NLS microfilm list that has one of the other larger towns in the county (as it was in 1881) in the title.

Best of luck,
Alan

trish58
Posts: 265
Joined: Wed Mar 22, 2006 6:41 am
Location: Australia

Re: Where do I go to now ?

Post by trish58 » Thu Aug 21, 2014 10:33 pm

Thank you Alan for both of those links I will check them out later.

The plot thickens with this family, I have just had a reply from the Bereavement Services who were checking on the burials of Richards 2 other Sons, Richard 15 April 1882 Bonhill. Alexandria. Patrick 3 Nov 1884 Alexandria. There are no burials for them either in Alexandria, so it appears that I will have to widen the search quite a lot.

Thanks
Trish
searching. Rae, Kennedy, Agnew, McConnell, Singleton, Appleton, Feeney, Fury, & many more

trish58
Posts: 265
Joined: Wed Mar 22, 2006 6:41 am
Location: Australia

Re: Where do I go to now ?

Post by trish58 » Tue Apr 14, 2015 2:40 pm

Well folks back again and it is only today that I had had a reply concerning my lost GrGrGrand Father & 15 of his deceased children. Taken a while don't you think ? The 6th Sept was when I put my first request in for searches, I supplied every single death date and age, address of each death and parent of each child. same applied to my GrGr Grand Father, his first wife who died in Killbirnie along with a couple of the children and their death certs states "Buried in Killbirnie Parish Church yard" still no record.

I am now got to the stage where I find this is totally distressing and feel like bawling my eyes out along with pulling my hair out.

Could some one PLEASE PLEASE tell me how 15 dead children along with their dead parents just disappear as if they never existed, it just doesn't happen. all I want is an honest answer, I feel it has been put into the "To hard basket".

Thanks for listening.
Trish. ](*,) ](*,)
searching. Rae, Kennedy, Agnew, McConnell, Singleton, Appleton, Feeney, Fury, & many more

apanderson
Posts: 395
Joined: Fri May 27, 2005 9:05 am
Location: Stirlingshire

Re: Where do I go to now ?

Post by apanderson » Tue Apr 14, 2015 9:16 pm

Sorry to hear of your lack of luck finding your relatives.

It wasn't until around mid way through the 1880's that most cemeteries were established, prior to this, burials were in Churchyards. (There are of course, exceptions to this - Glasgow Necropolis, Sighthill, the Southern and Eastern Necropolis were established at least 40 years previously.)

The responsibility of keeping the Churchyard burial records would probably fall to the Sexton/Clerk or even the Gravedigger, so if they didn't keep good records, or didn't bother making sure they were 'safe' somewhere, over the years, as the Churchyards filled up and the modern cemeteries were used, the old ledgers would either get thrown out or fall to pieces. Luckily, a few of these did survive, but the biggest majority didn't.

The recording of a Monumental Inscriptions from older stones is sometimes the only single record of someone's existence. Death Certificates only include this information between 1855 - 1860 (I think) when the place of burial was included.

Anne

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